April: Waugh: Vile Bodies

Vile Bodies. Wow! A gem. Much better than I expected after re-reading The Loved One a few years ago.

It takes a while to get into the British humour, if one is not one. I think the funny bits are somewhat like Max Shulman's Barefoot Boy with Cheek.

But it takes more than vignettes of funny bits to make a work than lasts into the next century. Not to give anything away, but pay attention to the details of the first page and see how they play out later on in the story. Some reviewer has said that Waugh presents an insight into the human condition. I think so, otherwise why would we care about the Mayfair crowd?

I happen to be currently avoiding writing my essay on Vile Bodies. Having read it twice in the last month or so, I have to agree that this is a brilliant book. Dark, but brilliant. Here's what I wrote when I first read it:

>> This is another one of those novels that can be read on multiple levels. You can read it purely for enjoyment, and follow the escapades of a bunch of madcap party animals in Roaring 20s London. Even at this level though, there is a biting undercurrent, so you know there's something else more serious going on. Another reading is a look at the "lost generation" that reached adulthood in the interwar years. Lots of bitter social commentary at that level. Either way, I highly recommend it.

When I first read it, I thought it was funny. But then I thought about it, and we discussed it in class for a few weeks, and then I thought it was serious. But then I reread it, and penciled a little smiley face in the margin every time I found something funny, and you know what? At the end, I could see that this book is indeed very funny.

But that isn't going to get me much of a grade on my essay, so I need to go actually write my paper. Ta ta, darling!

I just have to point out one of the member reviews of Vile Bodies here at Lt: "Too, too delight-making!" (S Morton).

Yep! Couldn't say it better myself.

It's quiet around here today, so I thought I'd post again. Waugh was originally going to call this novel Bright Young Things, but the term had become cliche, so he changed it to Vile Bodies. He got this from Philippians 3:21 "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Apparently its part of the Anglican funeral service, although I can't vouch for that, never having been to an Anglican funeral.

Interesting tidbit, I could only find the term "vile bodies" in the King James version and none of the other half-dozen translations I checked.

On another tangent, there was a movie made of the book, and it is titled Bright Young Things.

> 2,3,4 Good luck on your paper, J! Get to it!

My first read exposed just the humor, which, by itself, seemed remote, another land, another time. I likened it to a British version of Max Shulman's humor. But that didn't quite click. Why should we, in another century, care? After all, the Barefoot Boy is just sophomoric to me, today.

Then I reread portions, pulling together separate side threads. I found a devasting assessment of the older generation. The BYP have their parties, but the OG have their parties in parallel. Only not as much fun. If spoilers are no concern, check out the review I just posted.

The back story is war, previous and future. Grim, but the humor is still there, delicious in the details. The choice of a Daimler limousine as the General's staff car is precious. The reality is expressed by Father Rothschild S.J. without humor:

"Wars don't start nowadays because people want them. We long for peace, and fill our newspapers with conferences about disarmament and arbitration, but there is a radical instability in our whole world-order and soon we shall all be walking into the jaws of destruction again, protesting our pacific intentions."

Headlines from today. Even with this, there is hope. I just came across a reference to a newish poem which posits that instability is required for human dynamism. Fits in with Zamyatin's entropy/energy dualism. I'm off to explore.

As I've mentioned, I'm currently writing a paper on Vile Bodies, and I've done some very close reading. I noticed something that I think is significant that wasn't mentioned in my lectures, and that I haven't seen in any of the literary criticism I've read. In Chapter 2, Adam's manuscript of his autobiography is confiscated and destroyed by customs, and this sets of a plot line for the rest of the novel, as Adam struggles to recover from this financial set back. My first thought was that it was strange that a man described as young and unremarkable had even received an advance on his autobiography. What could he have to say? It's sort of lost in the farce, but I then noticed this conversation:

"But as for this autobiography, that's just downright dirt, and we burns that straight away, see."
"But good heavens, there isn't a word in the book--you must be misinterpreting it."
"Not so much of it. I knows dirt when I sees it . . ."

Notice: "there isn't a word in the book" . . . he hasn't written his autobiography, because his life is a blank. Yet it is still trash. So the whole series of events this confiscated manuscript sets off is really all for nothing . . .

> 6 Hmm, too deep for me. My first read of Adam's encounter with Customs was "there isn't a (dirty) word in the book." After a closer, second read, I still feel the same. This book was not going to make his literary career. It was to have a 2-week run before the next one came out and knocked his off the shelves. He would be lucky if he covered his advance. If his manuscript actually was blank, he was better off having it burned--dog ate my homework.

I thought the idea that Adam had nothing to say that was worth publishing was valid until I came across Confessions of an Heiress on Amazon. Adam did have something to say, as evidenced by his contributions to Chatterbox. Something that the massed tabloid readership was willing to pay for.

My takeaway interest is still centered on the scene in the General's staff car. As the tides of war turned to the flood to engulf them once again, which side would discover the car first? Would they shoot first and ask questions later? Would they fire on the basis of an enemy staff car? Or, seeing a friendly staff car, fire on the basis of the enemy staff within? Would Chastity survive to provide comfort to the lonely front-line troops? Would she ever be reunited with Charity? How many battle ribbons did the General have and did Chastity have time enough to attend to each one? These questions may never be answered, unless they are addressed in another book. On to A Handful of Dust!

In spite of my rather casual shelving system, I'm usually able to readily locate a book. Unfortunately, a prolonged search has thus far failed to turn up my copy of Vile Bodies which I read last September, swinging in my hammock while tent-camping in an idyllic setting in Utah. It may be that I was distracted by the scenery and the mountain chickadees foraging amidst the wild sunflowers, but few of the book's details seem to have stuck with me. I do recall laughing out loud from time to time, while also reflecting upon the fact that today's elite aren't nearly as idle as they used to be. And not nearly as disposed to madcap behavior. Irresponsible behavior, yes, but not madcap.

I'm going to keep looking.

Keep looking --- I read it again on the weekend (as I was working on my paper), and I found more layers of meaning that I missed on the first two reads.

I've started to read this one - only 2 chapters down so far. I am enjoying the tone of the writing. I haven't read enough to gain any insights though!

Unfortunately, I apparently did donate my copy of Vile Bodies to the used outlet at our library. Although Evelyn Waugh is well-represented throughout our library system, Vile Bodies is curiously absent, so I've been reading reviews, blogs and snippets of Waugh biographies on the Net to refresh my memory.

One wonders if the book would have ended on a lighter note had not the author's marriage floundered in the midst of writing it. Waugh is alleged to have said that he considered it his worst novel.

Many of his readers would certainly disagree, delighted by the fast-paced hilarity of it all and the whimsical names of the characters - Lord Chasm, Miles Malpractice, Mrs. Melrose Ape, Lady Throbbing, Lady Circumference..........

Upon reflection, my favorite scene is Agatha Runcible's daring caper at the race track.

This article provides many useful insights about the book:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_n3_v40/ai_16736307/?tag=content;c...

I was going to read some of Waugh's short stories, but, after reading this thread and seeing Vile Bodies on discount, I had to buy it! So, I'm well into it. :)

Edited to say: And it's very different from the other Waugh I've read--Brideshead Revisited.

tropics, I found the book began as a very frivolous and funny story, but at some point it changed and became much darker. I have also read somewhere that Waugh's personal life interfered with this story, changing its character.